


Two Theories on Winter Warmth

by paperwar



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte
Genre: Asian Character, Baseball, Christmas, Chromatic Character, Chromatic Source, Crush, F/M, Japanese Character, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-01
Updated: 2011-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:50:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperwar/pseuds/paperwar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hanai wants to get Momokan a present. The rest of the team wants a quick laugh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Theories on Winter Warmth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [el_vaquero](https://archiveofourown.org/users/el_vaquero/gifts).



> Many thanks to my betas, 1010nabulation and Phredd, whose laughter and suggestions were much appreciated.

Tajima was going home after practice. Or had planned to; Hanai shoved him away from the clubhouse door and leaned against it.

Tajima's eyebrows shot up. "If you wanted to get me alone, Hanai, you should've tried harder," he said, gesturing around him to the other players, who looked uniformly puzzled. Shinooka and Momokan had already left, but the captain had managed to hang on to everyone else.

"Don't be stupid," Hanai snapped. He pushed himself away from the door and crossed his arms.

"What's this about, Hanai?" Abe asked, curiosity veering towards suspicion.

"Well," Hanai began. "I just thought -- well, you know Christmas is coming up and -- "

"We should have a team party! At Mihashi's house!" Tajima interrupted, beaming. Mihashi's eyes widened. He sputtered something half-coherent about how he would ask his parents but if everyone really wanted to come, he was sure that they would be happy.

An excited murmur filled the room: _Remember how much food there was at Mihashi's birthday party? It sure is nice of his parents to have us over again!_ Hanai put his hand up and yelled, "Wait, wait, that's not it! That wasn't what I was saying at all!"

Silence. "I mean, I'm sure a party would be a great idea for the team, and we would be very grateful if Mihashi did want to host it. But that's not what I wanted to ask you all about."

He paused. He opened his mouth to continue, made the mistake of looking up, and froze under the scrutiny of nine pairs of eyes. _Come on_ , he thought, _they look at you all the time when you're giving pep talks._

Taking a deep breath, he said, "I thought we should get Coach a present." His voice, loud at the start of the sentence, had petered out into nearly inaudible.

His suggestion was greeted with silence for a moment, and then everyone jumped in at once.

Tajima's voice rose above the clamor. "Why don't you get something for Momokan? All on your own. I'm sure," he said, giving an exaggerated wink and an elbow to Hanai's ribs, "she'd be happy to get something from you."

"Or maybe," Mizutani said, with a rude gesture, "he'd just be really happy to give something to her."

"Yeah, maybe she'd give him something back!" Tajima leered.

Hanai opened his mouth to let out an angry denial when Mihashi said suddenly, "I don't understand... W-wouldn't it be better to get her one present from all of us? Or... is it just because Hanai is captain?"

Everyone turned to stare at Mihashi, who flinched and darted his gaze to the floor. Hanai took advantage of their distracted attention to concentrate on getting his blush to recede.

"It's because," Tajima started in a sing-song voice, "Christmas is for looooo-vers."

"But... Hanai and the coach aren't... ?"

"I don't know, they look pretty close sometimes to me," Izumi said thoughtfully.

"What are you saying?" Hanai straightened up, one hand curling itself closed at his side. "I just thought we should do something nice to thank her for her hard work, that's all!" He shrugged his shoulders. "And here you go making it into this dirty thing." He glared.

"Well," Nishihiro pointed out, "she probably doesn't have a lot of money to spend on herself, because she gives so much to the team. It's a nice idea. Whether," he added, with a smile quirking at the corners of his lips, "the present is from Hanai or all of us."

"See? Nishihiro gets it," Hanai said. His face was still a little too red, but thankfully, the conversation then turned to possible gift ideas. No one was sure what would be appropriate for a coach, much less a female coach and one like Momoe.

Tajima's idea, of course, couldn't be repeated in polite company and resulted in a smack on the head from Hanai.

The other players weren't much more inspired: flowers, chocolate (Hanai vetoed that as open to misinterpretation), a movie ("Not your kind of movie, Tajima!").

"M-maybe we should get her a scarf?" Mihashi asked.

"That's so boring," Tajima said.

"But she might get cold washing windows," Abe mused. "That's certainly a more practical idea than any of the things you suggested."

"What? A vibrator is practical!" Tajima said. "I bet it would get more use than a scarf."

**

Looking for a Christmas present with Tajima and Abe had to be a special form of hell, dreamed up only for him, Hanai thought as he allowed himself to be ushered along the busy shopping street. The air was crisp under a bright blue sky; groups of teenage girls pushed in and out of stores, giggling as they selected presents. Parents, usually with a look of fatigue, were dragged to look at toys by demanding children. Fewer in number were uncomfortable-looking men, peering timidly into shop windows and occasionally scurrying inside.

And then the three of them: Tajima gleefully inappropriate with every object that caught his eye, Abe accompanying them because it wouldn't be done right if he wasn't involved, and Hanai with a permanent cringe.

 _I should've just bought her something by myself_ , Hanai thought. Then again, he'd have even less of an idea of what to get than he did now. Most of the suggestions from the team were either inappropriate or insipid, which made the scarf idea sound better and better. Maybe a hat, too?

An image of Momoe in a knit hat, perhaps with some kind of sparkly, fluffy headband and a pompom on top, crept into his brain, and he had to stop in order to collect his thoughts. Fortunately, Tajima had just spotted an arcade up ahead and was bouncing around the machines where you tried to grab a prize with a mechanical claw.

"None of those," Abe said. "Even if you could manage to win one without spending five times more money than the prize was worth."

Tajima protested the aspersions on his game-playing skill, and Hanai was able to calm the blush off his face without notice.

Over an hour passed with no progress made. Hanai was frazzled and Abe annoyed, though he'd begun the day in that state of mind. Tajima alone seemed to be enjoying the day.

"Hand lotion? Maybe?" Hanai suggested in desperation, as they passed a store with various kinds of soaps, bubble bath, and other toiletries on display. The cloud of scent emerging from the store made Abe sneeze.

"Well, there are other things you can use, but in a pinch that would work," Tajima said, considering. "Though I wonder if it might, you know, sting? If it has all that stuff in it to make it good-smelling."

It took a second before it clicked and Hanai whacked Tajima on the head. "I was thinking of it for her hands, you pervert!" he shouted. "Because probably they get all beat up from all her different jobs." His lips quivered in simultaneous outrage and intrigue as he tried, with difficulty, to purge the mental picture of what Tajima assumed the lotion was for.

After that, they found themselves at a cafe, settled at a table with three different kinds of hot drinks in front of them. Hanai wasn't really thirsty but he thought some time to get his composure back -- and to think about how to forestall any further disasters -- might be a good idea.

It didn't work. Tajima was irrepressible, Abe permanently cranky. And Hanai still regretted involving the team. Better to have gotten Momoe something on his own, even though he was pretty sure giving her the present, alone, would make him sink into the floor.

Although that would've left him with only his sisters and his mother to ask for suggestions. Okay, maybe there was something worse than asking the Nishiura team.

Maybe they could ask Shinooka? She would definitely have a better idea. No, it would be rude since they weren't planning on getting her anything. At least not as far as he knew. He did wonder if Mizutani would get her something, but that was up to him. Unlike the rest of the team, Hanai wasn't a nosy, interfering troublemaker. What Mizutani did -- and felt -- was none of his business.

Hanai kept thinking about the hat. A perfect, fuzzy hat with a fluffy pompom. Steeling himself for mockery, he made the suggestion.

The results were predictable: "Well, it would be practical. Like the scarf," Abe said. Tajima objected to either item as boring.

"Your ideas are no good," Hanai said, voice rising. Two schoolgirls stared.

"We're not going to come up with something better," Abe said. "We've been shopping for hours. There's nothing all three of us will like, so we should go for something that two of us agree on."

Hanai was relieved. With Abe on his side, the whole nightmare would be over soon.

The trouble was selecting a hat. Hanai wanted something very pink, very sweet. "Shut up, Tajima, don't even say it," Hanai said, raising a hand in warning.

A second later, though, even Abe said he didn't think it was something Momokan would wear. "Her personality is too strong for pink. Red, maybe?"

Tajima snickered about red hearts and lovers.

They squabbled for a couple of minutes until Hanai, somehow, won. Abe got fed up and withdrew from the argument and Tajima -- well, Hanai could best Tajima once in a while, couldn't he? There was even a matching scarf.

That night, Hanai couldn't stop looking at the plastic bag on his desk, the box wrapped in the store's Christmas paper peeking out. Was it a dumb gift? Sure, it was a little dull, but it would be given with the best of intentions. Could that be enough?

 _Enough_... Hanai sighed. Whether or not it was appropriate, it seemed a little stingy, now that he thought about it, for a gift from an entire team. It wasn't like the scarf and hat were from a designer brand or anything like that. Then again, was it his fault that the team contributed so little money to buy them?

He fretted about it for the next few days before concluding that maybe it really was the thought behind the gift that was the most important thing.

**

Two days before Christmas, Hanai flung the present at Momokan. He didn't mean to; they'd just finished up a team discussion about training goals for the next year, and he panicked as everyone began to disperse.

She caught the package deftly, eyebrows raised.

"This is... from the team," Hanai managed. "To say thank you. Merry Christmas!"

She smiled. She smiled, Hanai thought, at _him_. Not one of her challenging, dangerous smiles, not one that meant that she'd just thought of a plan or was going to call you out for something stupid you'd done. But a genuine smile.

He thought he might melt, and prayed his blush felt more extreme than it was.

The other players shuffled out. Momokan thanked them as they went. Tajima punched Hanai on the shoulder in a comradely way, and a couple of the other guys seemed to be smirking as they left.

Momokan was still holding the package. Was she waiting to open it? Did she want him to leave first? Maybe she didn't want to embarrass him if she didn't like it. He'd better go. He'd get to see her wearing the hat soon enough, right? Surely she'd wear it. Wouldn't she?

He winced, seeing the box in her hands. The wrapping paper was so crinkled. He thought he'd been careful tucking it inside his bag, but he must've jarred it. At least it wasn't torn.

**

At the start of practice a few days later, Momokan pulled Hanai aside, waving on the other team members congregating around them.

She was wearing the hat, he realized. The rush of pleasure this gave him surprised him, and he just barely managed to stop his lips turning up in a grin.

She noticed this and smiled. "It's very warm," she said. "I'm afraid the scarf is now my dog's favorite thing for playing tug of war -- she really likes it! So I hope you're not offended."

"No, no, not at all -- I'm just glad --" he began.

She pulled out a small box from her jacket pocket. "I think this was probably meant for someone else's present, though," she said, pressing it into his hand. _Or it should've been_ , the expression on her face said.

"Okay," Hanai said, frowning in confusion. She went inside the clubhouse and he turned over the box.

 _Pink Pearl_ , it said, in silvery script. And something about batteries. He didn't understand until he opened it. Suddenly he recalled the messed-up wrapping paper on the present. He hadn't damaged it in his bag. Someone had opened it and taped it back up again. "I'm going to kill him," Hanai hissed. Of all the times he'd thought it, he felt like he really could this time. He could never face Momokan again. Never.

With perfect timing, and oblivious to the hostile thoughts aimed in his direction, Tajima came ambling up. Hanai grabbed him by the shirt. "What is this?" he yelled, the tiny pink vibrator dangling from one fist.

Tajima, unfazed, said, "It matched the hat! There's more than one way to keep warm, you know."


End file.
